


Battle of the Defenses

by iwriteinpen



Series: Haikyuu Does Handball [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Olympics, Articles, Gen, Inspired by Real Events, Interviews, News Media, Newspapers, Olympics, Professional athletes, Real Life, Social Media, Sports, Summer Olympics, handball
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:07:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25548712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwriteinpen/pseuds/iwriteinpen
Summary: It's time for the second game of the 2020 Olympics! The boys are ready to give it their all - but will it be enough?
Series: Haikyuu Does Handball [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1713979
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	1. Live Updates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _FIC:_ Live updates from the game between Japan and Germany!

### Game 2: Japan vs. Germany

Today’s match is between Germany and Japan.

Germany has a strong defense and some of the best wing players in the world! With both a solid defense and speed, they will be hard to beat.

The starting lineup for Japan is as follows: Hinata, Yaku, Sawamura, Kageyama (Kuroo in defense), Tanaka, Bokuto, Akaashi, and Tsukishima in the goal.

1st Minute: 0:0 - Germany starts on the offensive. Daichi and Kuroo are covering the middle section of the Japanese defense. Kuroo subs out for Kageyama when Japan goes on the attack.

4th Minute: 0:0 - Neither team budges. No goal from anyone, this will truly be a battle of defenses.

6th Minute: 0:1 - The first goals comes, not unexpected, from a penalty. Germany leads.

8th Minute: 1:1 - Goal! Bokuto equalizes! The first goal comes from a beautiful break through the opposing defense on the left back.

10th Minute: 2:2 - Hinata moves fast and secures the rebound which he uses to score!

11th Minute: 2:3 - Germany scores from the nine-meter line!

11th Minute: 3:3 - Bokuto scores again. Kageyama sets it up perfectly and Bokuto, reliable as ever, hammers it in!

12th Minute: 3:4 - The Germans score through a penalty once again.

15th Minute: 5:5 - The Germans aren’t the only ones who can utilize a penalty shot. Nishinoya steps up and scores!

16th Minute: Tsukishima saves! The Germans tried to lob it over him from the penalty line, but Japan’s high tower catches it with one hand!

17th Minute: 6:5 - Kageyama scores his first goal in the match! A strong individual presentation from him today and a remarkable shot!

18th Minute: 7:5 - A brilliant block from Kuroo and the rest of the team is off! The ball gets passed up the court and Kageyama scores!

19th Minute: 7:5 - Germany shortens Japan’s lead.

20th Minute: 8:6 - Sawamura scores. Kageyama sees the opening and serves him a nice pass.

21st Minute: 9:7 - A truly exciting game! Germany shortens the lead once again, but Kageyama and Sawamura give us a masterclass in teamwork once again! And, of course, Sawamura scores!

22nd Minute: 9:8 - The Germans show that they too can make good use of a line player and score.

24th Minute: 10:8 - The German right wing player shoots, Tsukishima saves! In the other end, the Japanese right wing Yaku shows the germans how it’s done with a goal! The Germans call a timeout.

25th Minute: 11:10 - Both teams have turned up the energy! For Japan, it’s Bokuto with an insane underarm throw. Unfortunately, Germany also scores.

27th Minute: 12:11 - Germany shortens Japan’s lead again. But Hinata scores for Japan! He jumps from the left back position and somehow manages to shoot past the entire German defense.

29th Minute: 12:13 - Two goals from Germany and the Japanese lead is entirely gone. Now they have to chase the Germans.

30th Minute: 12:14 - Germany scores on a penalty.

 **HALFTIME: 13:14** \- _Kageyama manages to steal the ball and make one last goal before the buzzer goes off. This is a high-intensity game, and neither team is ready to give the other even an inch. Especially the defenses are allowed to shine in this game! The game still remains fair, this is handball at it’s best!_

31st Minute: 13:14 - We’re off again! The Japanese have subbed Oikawa in for Kageyama, Ennoshita for Tsukishima, and Iwaizumi for Tanaka.

32nd Minute: 14:14 - Oikawa is off to a great start, he sees the opening on the left wing and passes to Hinata, who scores without a problem!

34th Minute: 15:15 - Germany scores, but Bokuto is ready again and equalizes the score once again.

35th Minute: 15:16 - Bad luck for the Japanese! The ball hits the tip of Kuroo's fingers but still manages to bounce into the goal.

36th Minute: 16:16 - Germany misses and Sawamura uses this opportunity to score!

37th Minute: 16:17 - The Japanese defense gives way and the Germans are in the lead again.

38th Minute: 17:17 - Oikawa scores! A very important goal, this phase requires long attacks and tactical thinking!

39th Minute: 17:17 - That was just awful! The German back hits Bokuto in the face! Bokuto goes to the bench for a short break, Tanaka takes his place on the court. The German back receives a red card for his troubles.

40th Minute: 17: 17 The Germans play a very long attack, playing for 90 seconds! They get a penalty shot, but Ennoshita saves!

41st Minute: 17:18 - Oikawa’s shot doesn’t make it into the goal. The Germans, however, score and take the lead again.

43rd Minute: 17:18 - The game could still go either way! Ennoshita saves, Japan goes on the attack!

43rd Minute: 18:18 - Equalizer Japan! A great combination and the ball ends in the hands of Sawamura who scores! Bokuto is also back on the court again!

44th Minute: 18:18 - Ennoshita saves once again!

45th Minute: 18:18 - Germany takes another timeout.

46th Minute: 19:18 - Iwaizumi finds a hole in the German defense and brings Japan in the lead again.

47th Minute: 19:19 - The Germans score again and Kuroo gets a two-minute suspension.

48th Minute: 19:20 - The Germans steal the ball and score from nine meters.

50th Minute: 19:21 - Oikawa fumbles a pass and it’s punished with a German goal. Kuroo is now back after his suspension.

51st Minute: 20:21 - A brilliant pass from Bokuto to Sawamura, who scores yet again!

52nd Minute: 20:22 - Germany scores after a long attack and stays ahead.

54th Minute: 21:22 - Great block from Kuroo and Hinata scores on the fast break.

56th Minute: 21:22 - NOO! The referee calls an attack foul and the Germans have the ball.

57th Minute: 21:23 - How did that make it into the goal? The Germans score from an impossible angle.

58th Minute: 22:24 - BOKUTOOO! What a shot! What a goal! The Germans make a fast goal.

59th Minute: 22:24 - The ball is in Japanese hands. Only 90 seconds left!

60th Minute: 22:24 - The ball now in German hands. And the German coach takes their last timeout.

60th Minute: 22:24 - Kuroo gets his second two-minute suspension, and the Germans keep the ball.

 **END:** \- _The Germans make a last-second goal and the game ends 22:25 to Germany._


	2. Player Ratings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _ARTICLE:_ Handball Expert Haruto Sato rates the players for their performance tonight.

* * *

## Player Ratings

Japan TV’s handball expert, Haruto Sato, grades the Japanese player’s performances after their second game at the 2020 Olympics.

Japan lost 22 - 25 to Germany in an all-around disappointing game. This match was a disappointing follow-up to the great match they played two days ago.

  * Germany isn’t a bad team and losing to them isn’t a shame. It’s the way that they lost. There was too many rookie mistakes from all of them and it’s just not good enough, Sato says.
  * The Japanese defense was also remarkably absent today. The defense was one of the great things about the opening game and it’s concerning to see the level fall that much this quickly, Sato adds.



The amount of technical mistakes more than tripled from the opening game to today, even the more experienced players, like Oikawa and Bokuto made their fair share. It’s hard to know if today or the opening game was the fluke. One thing is certain, if this is the level that they will play at, the goal of advancing seems far fetched, if not downright impossible.

**SATO’S GRADING SCALE**

**6 - Incredible**

**5 - Great**

**4 - Above Average**

**3 - Average**

**2 - Below Average**

**1 - Not great**

**0 - Failed**

**N/A - Less than five minutes of playing time**

_Below follows the grades for each player as assigned by Haruto Sato._

**Tsukishima Kei - 3**

Tsukishima ends with saving percentage of 18 and three saves overall. This isn’t impressive but when you factor the bad defense into it, this isn’t bad. The Japanese could have used some spectacular saves today, but Tsukishima couldn’t deliver those.

**Ennoshita Chikara - 3**

Ennoshita ends on a saving percentage of 22 with the same number of saves as Tsukishima, 3. One of the saves was on a penalty shot. He also doesn’t pull out any amazing saves, but again, the defense simply wasn’t there making the goalkeepers job much harder.

**Yaku Morisuke - 3**

Yaku Morisuke scores on the one chance that he has, but other than that doesn’t contribute much to the game, positively or negatively. In addition, the wing players all received very few passes so there wasn’t much to work with.

**Nishinoya Yuu - 3**

Nishinoya scores on the one penalty Japan has this game, but like Yaku, he doesn’t contribute with anything else.

**Hinata Shouyou - 4**

Hinata ends with a scoring percentage of 100. He has four opportunities to score in this game and he doesn’t waste a single one. He is quick to catch the rebound and today that worked well. He doesn’t contribute much in the defense but as wingplayer that also isn’t his job.

**Bokuto Koutarou - 3**

While Bokuto ends up with a scoring percentage of 100, he only scores 5 goals. This is far from the amount that we’ve come to expect from him. He also has fewer passes that end in goals today than usual. He was hit in the head, and continued to play showing us just how much he is willing to fight. He slacked off in the defense and it was often in his side that the Germans found their way through.

**Iwaizumi Hajime - 2**

Iwaizumi scores one goal in as many tries, but one goal in 30 minutes from a back player is simply not enough. In addition, he has zero goal giving passes, which again is simply not good enough. He brought just about nothing to the defense.

**Tanaka Ryuunosuke - 1**

He plays all of the first half and scores no goals. He costs plenty of them in the defense. All in all, a very bad performance from Tanaka today.

**Kageyama Tobio - 3.5**

Kageyama scores three goals in as many tries, giving him a scoring percentage of 100. In addition to the goals, he has three passes that end in goals, meaning that he was directly involved 28% of the goals today. He doesn’t play defense so there isn’t much to say about that.

**Kozume Kenma - N/A**

**Oikawa Tooru - 1**

He ends with a scoring percentage of 50, with one goal and one miss. He has one pass that ends in a goal. He also makes a few technical errors that directly result in German goals. For the people speculating if Kageyama will replace him, today’s game was a good indicator for when that happens. Oikawa’s performance was very bad today.

**Akaashi Keiji - 1**

Akaashi plays 30 minutes and scores 0 goals. He isn’t too bad in the defense, but 0 goals is unacceptable.

**Kuroo Tetsurou - 2**

Kuroo Tetsurou tries his best to keep the defense together, but there was nothing he could do. He also gets two two-minute suspensions, which isn’t bad in a hard, physical game like this but definitely did not help the situation.

**Sawamura Daichi - 4.5 (PLAYER OF THE MATCH)**

Sawamura has a scoring percentage of 100, five goals in five tries. He is also the only saving grace in the Japanese defense today. While this wasn’t Sawamura’s best performance, he played well.

**Coach Nekomata - 0**

Nekomata had no solutions and tried nothing to remedy his defense tactic when that failed. Much can be said about the players, but if the coach cannot solve the tactical issues on the court, he abandons his players. Nothing was guaranteed to work, but it would have been nice to see him take chances.


	3. Post-game Interviews

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _FIC:_ It's intervew time! What do the players have to say about their performance tonight?

The interview area is buzzing with people, journalists and German players all mixed together. Oikawa, Kuroo and Kageyama are standing together of to the side waiting to be called in for their interview. The rest of the team already got to leave but for some reason, the three of them had to do more.

“I hate interviews,” Kageyama grumbles, standing in the middle.

“You might have to get used to them,” Kuroo chuckles, “looks like you’re up first, kiddo.” Kuroo points at a journalist that is motioning for Kageyama to come over.

Kageyama sighs and walks over to the waving journalist. The journalist gets him to stand in one specific spot, facing the camera.

“We’ve caught Kageyama here, after his first loss at this Olympics.” The journalist turns away from the camera and faces Kageyama. “How do you feel after this loss?”

“I hate losing,” Kageyama answers looking straight at the camera.

“And?” the journalist tries to coerce more out of Kageyama.

“Nothing?” Kageyama looks away from the camera for a second.

“Okay,” the journalist straightens their shoulders. “How will you get over this feeling before the next game so that this doesn’t affect your playing?”

“It won’t,” Kageyama answers.

“How do you make sure it doesn’t?” The journalist is very clearly getting frustrated with the short and non-descript answers Kageyama is giving.

“Because I’m not an idiot,” Kageyama says and the journalist's eyes widen.

“Umm that’s it from Kageyama Tobio, we’ll be back with more reactions here from Yoyogi stadium.”

The camera turns off and the journalist sends Kageyama away with a shake of their head.

Further down the line, Oikawa has started his interview.

“Why do you think you lost today?” The journalist wastes no time on pleasantries and gets right into the worst questions out there.

Oikawa takes a second to gather his thoughts before answering. “We didn't play our best today, we had a few two-minutes suspensions which, of course, is unfortunate but nothing that wasn’t expected of what we knew would be a physical match,” Oikawa answers in a calm tone.

The journalist hums in response. “So what could you have done better today? To get the win-” The journalist points the microphone back to Oikawa.

“Uhm,” Oikawa looks around, “I made some mistakes here and there and of course those shouldn't happen but I will not play like this again,” Oikawa says carefully.

“So we didn't get to see your best today then?” the journalist follows up.

One thought runs through Oikawa’s head before he answers the question; _I hope not_. “I can assure you that this is not as good as I get,” Oikawa says through gritted teeth.

“Now that Kageyama has joined the national team, someone that many have said to be the best playmaker Japan has ever seen, do you feel like you still have a role to play on the team?” The journalist, clearly out for blood, asks the question Oikawa has been dreading since Kageyama started to pop up in the pro circles.

“Yes.” Oikawa doesn’t let the doubt seep into his mind. “Kageyama is still young and inexperienced, and experience can make a big difference.”

“Thank you for your time.” The journalist sends Oikawa away with an insincere smile and a hand motion.

Kuroo's interview, on the other hand, is going great.

“You’ve been named captain for these Olympics, how does that feel?” the interviewer asks with a smile.

“Well, I have to point out that I am a co-captain.” Kuroo smiles at the camera. “I share the responsibility with the great Sawamura Daichi.” Kuroo has to restrain himself from winking at the camera.

“Ah yes, of course,” the journalist interjects.

“But it feels great to know that coach Nekomata trusts me with that responsibility, I know that D- uh Sawamura regrets the fact that I have any kind of authority.” Kuroo laughs.

“Oh? And why is that?” The journalist plays with her hair.

“Well, Bokuto and I have been known to do some shenanigans when the opportunity is there,” Kuroo says with a smirk.

“So as a co-captain,” the journalist emphasizes the ‘co’, “how will you get your time to perform better in the next game?” she asks with a smile.

“Well for one, it is no shame to lose to Germany,” Kuroo says. “That being said, we made too many mistakes and at this level that isn't good enough. However, I believe that most of them know how to get over this little set back best. The rookies might need a little help but I am confident that Sawamura and I can do it.”

“And just as a last question, after tonight, how far do you think you can go?” The journalist holds the microphone in front of Kuroo’s face again.

“After tonight, I have the utmost faith in my team. I believe that everyone will do their best. Blood, sweat, tears and all that. Sawamura is a great captain. Our rookies, though weird and annoying, are some of the best in the world. The experienced players are a different calibre, I don’t think Japan has ever had a better team than now. Plus, just try and tell Bokuto, Kageyama, and Hinata that they can’t win something.” Kuroo ends the interview with a laugh.

Kuroo leaves and walks back towards the dressing room. Daichi is standing in the hallway, waiting for Kuroo to come back.

“Did you call me Daichi again?” he asks as Kuroo comes nearer.

“No,” Kuroo says and Daichi raises an eyebrow. “Almost,” he gives in.

“Did you wink at the camera?” Daichi smiles slightly.

“No,” Kuroo says again, and Daichi once again raises an eyebrow. “Almost,” Kuroo gives in once again.

Daichi laughs. “You’re unbelievable,” Daichi says, while still laughing.

“Unbelievably amazing, I know.” Kuroo laughs as well and the two walk into the locker room together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \--
> 
> Follow us on tumblr at [@hqdoeshandball](http://hqdoeshandball.tumblr.com) to see even more content and find the social media posts <3


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